If Seth Feider wins the 56th annual Bassmaster Classic, his Vexus will likely be in dirt-shallow water catching largemouth he refers to as “buckets” on a Rapala squarebill or perhaps a spinnerbait, and it will absolutely be fueled with sentimental motivation in the form of his dad’s old Bass Fever Bassmasters jacket from 1985.
“Dad’s in his 70s now, he’s not coming to Knoxville, so I figured it’d be cool to bring his old bass club jacket with me this week,” says the always laid-back Feider.
The Minnesota pro says his dad, Pete, and he fished together more so when Seth was really young, but by the time he was about 12, his dad would turn him loose alone for the day in a johnboat.
“You can tell by the jacket he obviously loved to fish back in the day, but hunting has always been his real passion. When it came to bass fishing, dad was typically gonna drag a grape Producto plastic worm around. He had a two-tone beige Plano tacklebox full of jars of pork frogs that had rusty lids on them,” smiles Feider.
Seth’s definitely an old-school basser who loves the sport’s history, so don’t be shocked if he flips a jig and pork frog of his own around on Fort Loudoun Lake this week. He’s a bit concerned about Friday morning’s forecast for freezing temps but is hopeful that because most of these largemouth live shallow, they’ll stay shallow no matter the weather.
“I like it here. I think Knoxville is the best Classic venue in the country because everything is so close. The launch, the weigh-in, the Expo, hotels, and the river are all pretty much in walking distance of one another, and the fishing is solid. I think fans can expect fish to be caught from 4 inches to 40 feet of water, and it’ll come down to the final hours on Sunday. I don’t see anybody running away with this one,” says Feider.
Hopefully his seventh shot at a Classic title will yield the win he’s dreamed of since back when he was a boy fishing from a jon boat, and his dad was sewing patches on his bass club jacket.
